Chaos erupted on an Alaska Airlines flight to Anchorage last Wednesday when a passenger who was suffering from hallucinations and was “out of mind” tried to open the emergency exit mid-air, managing to force the handle from its fully locked position.
Kassian William Fredericks has now been charged with interference with flight crew members following his highly disruptive behavior aboard the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 on December 10.
If found guilty, Fredericks faces a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in a federal prison, as well as a fine of $250,000.
Witnesses thought Fredericks had a medical condition
According to a newly filed affidavit in an Alaska district court, the passengers who had been sitting close to Fredericks at the back of the aircraft had become increasingly alarmed about his behavior, and some even switched their seats because they feared he could become physical.
Shortly after Flight AS-87 from the small Alaska community of Deadhorse departed at around 7 pm last Wednesday, passengers noticed that Fredericks was talking to himself and was fidgeting a lot.
Both passengers and crew put this down to some kind of medical condition, with one passenger telling FBI investigators that he thought Fredericks might have tourettes.
Fredericks became increasingly agitated
It soon became apparent, however, that something else was going on.
As the flight attendants were trying to complete the beverage service, they heard Fredericks shout, “The wings have disappeared. We are all going to die.” One of the crew members went to check on Fredericks, and he told the flight attendant: “Meth is coming out of the air vents. Everybody is freaking out.”
The crew asked the passengers sitting around Fredericks to keep an eye on him as they completed the beverage service, but at some point, he got up from his seat and slipped away to the back of the plane.
Passenger catches Fredericks trying to open the emergency exit
Thankfully, another passenger was exiting the restroom at the back of the plane just as Fredericks allegedly tried to yank the emergency exit door open while the plane was still mid-air.
The passenger yelled for help, and it took three grown men to pull Fredericks away from the door, as he screamed that he needed to get some air.
Flight attendants initially suggested restraining Fredericks in zip ties, but to prevent any further escalation, it was decided instead that other passengers would sit around Fredericks for the remainder of the flight.
On arrival in Anchorage, Fredericks was taken to the hospital for medical evaluation, where he was overheard telling a doctor that he had been drinking for the past 10 days, was seeing and hearing things, and was currently taking antidepressants.
While the Captain told investigators that Fredericks would not have been able to physically open the emergency exit due to the pressurization in the cabin, the flight attendants feared that his actions could have caused the emergency slide to inflate inside the plane.
Alaska Airlines has a problem with Anchorage flights
This is not the first time that Alaska Airlines has faced extreme unruly behavior on flights to Anchorage:
- In April 2023, a passenger drank hand sanitizer from a bottle and then sexually assaulted his seatmate, before lighting a cigarette and insinuating that everyone was going to die in a plane crash.
- Last November, a woman who lives in a remote Alaskan community where alcohol is banned got drunk on an Alaska Airlines flight to Anchorage and ended up getting arrested when she attacked her husband.
- In June 2023, a passenger attacked a flight attendant and sprayed passengers and crew with blood as an off-duty nurse tried to administer a life-saving dose of Narcan, fearing he was overdosing.
Bottom line
Kassian Fredericks has been charged with interference with flight crew members after he tried to open an emergency exit during an Alaska Airlines flight to Anchorage.
If found guilty, he could be imprisoned for up to 20 years, but this kind of sentence is incredibly unlikely. Consider that an Alaska Airlines pilot who was high on magic mushrooms when he tried to kill the engines of a plane mid-air escaped a jail sentence.
